Gold and Silver Fall, US Mint Bullion Coins Soar

by Bullion Prices Staff on June 3, 2010

U.S. gold ended lower on Thursday as the appetite for riskier investments prevailed and yellow metal safety-buying retreated.

Risk appetite has somewhat increased this week amid more stable world financial markets –or at least no fresh, major developments that have further unsettled investors," noted Jim Wyckoff of Kitco News.

"This has put modest downside price pressure on gold, some of which is profit-taking from recent gains … with no chart damage occurring. Recent history does show that any significant corrective pullback in gold prices has been a bargain-hunting buying opportunity for investors."

In New York precious metals prices, August gold closed to $1,210.40 an ounce, falling $12.60 or 1.0%. Gold’s intraday high was $1,226.50 and its low was $1,202.40.

"The flight-to-quality appeal of gold has been put on the back burner," Adam Klopfenstein, a senior market strategist at Lind-Waldock in Chicago, said on Bloomberg. "Traders and investors are embracing risk again."

In other metals, July silver ended at $17.931 an ounce, falling 38.4 cents or 2.1%. July platinum ended at $1,542.90 an ounce for a loss of $7.50 or 0.5%. September palladium closed at $450.80 an ounce, ending down $2.50 or 0.6%.

In London bullion prices, the afternoon gold fix was $1,215.00 an ounce, which was unchanged from Wednesday. Silver was $18.270 an ounce for a dip of 16 cents or 0.9%. Platinum was $1,565.00 an ounce for a gain of $23.00 or 2.7%. And palladium was $462.00 an ounce for a pick up of $12.00 or 2.7%.

Physical demand for precious metals in the form of bullion coins soared in May, according to the latest sales data from the United States Mint. 22-karat American Gold Eagle sales hit 190,000 for the month, which was the highest sales since 1999. (A total of 529,500 have been purchased this year as of Thursday.) Also, as written on sister site CoinNews:

"Mint authorized purchasers also snapped up 70,500 American Gold Buffalos, bringing the total ounces of bullion gold May sales to 260,500. Only one month since the Mint’s bullion program launched in 1986 recorded better, and that was January 1999 with 281,000 ounces of gold coins."

Bullion American Silver Eagle coins last month enjoyed their best performance since 1986. US Mint authorized buyers ordered an astounding 3,636,5000 eagles during the month. Year to date sales as of Thursday is 15,676,500 — a level that already makes 2010 the third best annual year for the coins.